Through the Seasons with Wildflowers of the Sandplain

We will start our walk early in the season and look at a composite of some of the wildflowers to be seen on the Martha's Vineyard sandplain in places like the State Forest, Katama and Wasque.

As early as April and May, the pale lavender blossoms of the birdsfoot violet, Viola pedata, can be found above their ground-hugging, deeply lobed leaves. These sun-loving plants are out in the dry open clearing with lichens, Cladonia spp., and the basal rosettes of colic root, Aletris farinose, bleached out during the winter and minus the foot-high raceme of small tubular white flowers that will come along in summer. Here also is golden heather, Hudsonia ericoides, with its mop of needle-like leaves just budding out and clumps of little bluestem grass, Schizachyrium scoparium, which gives our fields their soft rosy hue as summer advances but comes up with blue-green stems. Nearby there are tall stems of Indian grass, Sorghastrum nutans, another late summer grass. Unlike the turf we cultivate as a lawn, our native grasses grow in clumps that leave spaces for wildflowers to fill.

These plants are members of a sandplain grassland community, and when we see them on the island, we'll probably find them together. We may begin to suspect that there is cooperation among these species, the ability to share a common space so that all thrive. In efforts to preserve endangered species it is important to preserve the whole habitat in which they live. In this way the plants and other rare organisms are protected.

As the shadblow comes into bloom in May you will find an occasional Nantucket shad, Amelanchier nantucketensis, found only on Nantucket and the Vineyard. Notice how the botanical name gives us clues about the plants. And soon the rockroses Helianthemum spp., will open five-petaled yellow flowers. We will find these if we look along the sunny edges of the path, perhaps near an oak and pine woods. Here there may be blue toadflax, Linaria Canadensis, and pinweed, Lechea spp., alongside the more familiar trailing bearberry, Arctostophila uva-ursi.

Walking on into early summer, scattered plants of blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium spp., will wink into bloom. Members of the iris family, their leaves resemble blades of grass. Nuttall's milkwort with its tiny greenish to yellow-purple heads will be harder to spot. The bushclovers, Lespediza spp., wild indigo, Baptisia tinctoria, tick trefoils, Demondium with their triangular seeds that travel home on your socks, and goat's rue, Tephrosia virginiana, are all members of the pea family and fill in much of the background of the plants seen so far. They all have leaves that are divided into three parts.

Summer will be the time to discover the plants of sandplain flax, Linum intercursum, with its tiny yellow flower, top-heavy buds and swaying on its delicate stem. By now many more grasses will be blooming. These will be worth examining with a hand lens, for their blossoms are quite fantastic. We will begin now to see asters, early ones first like the sickle-leaved golden aster, Pityopsis falcate, the toothed white-topped aster, Aster paternus, and the leaves of the later blooming species. The fall asters, goldenrods, everlastings and bonesets begin to catch our attention in late August and September. Now also we find another composite, blazing star, Liatris borealis, found in only a few places on the island. With its tall spikes of purple bloom, it is one of our showiest wildflowers.

By now the downy goldenrod, Solidago puberula, stands straight with its head of yellow-green flowers contrasting beautifully with the wine color of its fall leaves. Even as it blooms, our early flowers will have been making seeds. As a rule of thumb, wildflowers will produce seeds within a month of blooming but the ripening and dispersal varies from species to species.

When we see and appreciate these flowers of the sandplain community, we may wish our own grounds could reflect more of this special Vineyard character. Because restoring habitats is delicate work with many unanswered questions, we will need to proceed carefully. Perhaps a first step would be to stop mowing a small place where lawn meets a natural area. Little bluestem grass may appear and if there is a bit of bare ground asters and goldenrods will arrive in time. Efforts are being made to create restoration plots on the island to raise seeds of selected species. And some local nurseries and landscape people have native plants available.

    - Carol Knapp